Episode Details

This story was originally published on HackerNoon at: https://hackernoon.com/inside-coinsph-wei-zhou-on-stablecoin-payments-usdc-and-global-expansion.
Ex-Binance CFO Wei Zhou on buying Coins.ph before FTX collapsed, weekend FX beating banks, USDC hitting 40% of volume, and building a stablecoin fintech.
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Wei Zhou spent three and a half years as CFO of Binance, then did something none of his peers did: he bought a company instead of founding one, acquiring Coins.ph, the Philippines' central-bank-licensed crypto exchange and e-wallet, in 2022, six months before FTX collapsed. In this Behind the Startup conversation, he explains why stablecoins have quietly become the largest financial inclusion event in emerging markets, why his weekend FX desk is winning business from remittance giants while banks sleep, why USDC has gone from nearly nothing to 40 per cent of his stablecoin volume in two years, and why he believes every currency on earth eventually moves onto public blockchain rails. He also shares where Coins.ph goes next: cards, Brazil, South Asia partnerships, and a lending product aimed at markets where credit is expensive because liquidity is scarce. Q: Who is Wei Zhou? Wei Zhou is the CEO of Coins.ph, the Philippines' central-bank-licensed cryptocurrency exchange and e-wallet. He previously worked at Goldman Sachs and served as CFO of Binance for three and a half years before acquiring Coins.ph in 2022. Q: What is Coins.ph? Coins.ph is a Philippines-based crypto exchange and licensed e-wallet regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for almost a decade. It lets users hold pesos, buy stablecoins and crypto, and powers stablecoin-based remittances and payouts, with expansion into Brazil and a card product planned. Q: Why do stablecoins matter for remittances? Traditional cross-border corridors cost 2 to 4 per cent per transfer, and the global average cost of sending $200 is over 6 per cent. Zhou says stablecoin rails bring corridors down to 20 to 40 basis points, and they settle in real time, including weekends and after banking hours. Q: What did Wei Zhou say about USDC? Two years ago nearly all stablecoin volume on Coins.ph was USDT. Today roughly 40 per cent is USDC, driven by US companies exporting USDC globally for payouts, a business line Zhou says did not exist two years ago. Q: What is Coins.ph's plan for the next three years? To become a global fintech built on stablecoin rails rather than traditional banking rails: payments and cards first, then lending in emerging markets where scarce liquidity keeps credit expensive, with Brazil live, Latin America and South Asia as target regions, and local partnerships as the ent